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Government forces failed to attack six rebel-occupied Muslim-dominated villages in Zamboanga, southern Philippines.
They, however, succeeded in preventing rebel intrusion in Zamboanga City, now paralysed after Filipino-Muslim rebel leaders renewed an armed struggle, following a founding rebel leader’s claim that government negotiators refused to review the implementation of a pro-autonomy peace accord that their group signed with the Philippine government in 1996.
Five police officers were shot dead in an ambush in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south on Wednesday, officials said, but the government vowed the attack would not derail fragile peace efforts.
The shooting comes a day after two soldiers were killed in an attack at a school in the south by suspected rebels, apparently intent on disrupting the peace talks.
Fighting between the Burmese government and Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) broke out Tuesday morning in Nam Lim Pa area near the Kachin/Shan state border, said local church and KIO officials.
The fighting started at about 9 a.m. local time and continued until after noon, said a pastor of Kachin Baptist Church in Bhamo (also known as Manmaw), about 40 miles north of Nam Lim Pa.
Six people have been reported killed and dozens wounded and trapped after more than 100 suspected members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) infiltrated several coastal villages in Zamboanga City before dawn Monday.
Zamboanga City Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said in her official statement that the the fatalities include a navy personnel, a policeman and four civilians.
Militants in Pakistan’s most populous province are said to be training for what they expect will be an ethnic-based civil war in neighbouring Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw in 16 months.
In the past two years, the number of Punjab-based militants deploying to regions bordering on Afghanistan has tripled and is now believed to be in the thousands, says analyst Mansur Mehsud.